It seems the first quarter of 08 holds in store for a lot of people many more things than I expected. I certainly can’t say that I foresaw a good half of whats going on in February and March. Heres a quick list - (everyone loves lists!):

• Anon vs Scientology: Chanology kicks it up a notch - Feb 10 protests, with March 15 underway
• BarCamp LA weekend of March 1st
• Etech 08 March 3-7
• SXSW (for some) March 7-9
• Lightbending Photography - Scored some awesome people: models, flash developers.. theres a new photoguy in town!
• Inner ear sugery (for me!)
• Senate allows telco immunity

Preparedness is key now - and it’s clear some parties are less efficient than others. I’ve been waiting for the Etech 08 crew to either approve or deny my ‘Hacking reality’ BoF talk for nearly 3 months. I haven’t made my presentation yet, but I fathom I should even if they deny me, since I’ll just give it at BarCamp LA 5.

After the last chanology op I had what looked like an unmarked police car follow me for 20 minutes while I drove away, so for the Ines of March I’ll have to be certain to park far away and/or take public transportation. March 15 is going to make the news again.

Foresight is a skill not many people have a good grasp on - I’ll be the first to admit, I’m nowhere near as skilled as I’d like to be there. Perhaps some more ‘quality time’ with the fine members of Lunch 2.0/BarcampSD/BarcampLA/Etech will cater to a sharpness of the wit I’ve been yearning for. Every bit of help is dearly appreciated in this regard. Looking ahead and being accurate in that context is a very very coveted skill.

It’s time to strap on helmets, gentlemen(women?) - the rest of 08 will likely follow suit to quater 1.

Be sharp
Be aware
.. but be relaxed and groovy.

This is where I express my need for finding a way to operate with far less sleep. My accomplishments for the last four days have knocked me on my ass, so I’m wishing for a breather day (or two) - but between my ‘the boss twisted my arm to go to these’ oracle classes on tues/thurs nights, work, and side projects - I’ll be lucky to get any rest at all.

I have a couple of prospects for my new personal photography website, lightbending.net, so stay tuned - I’m actively recruiting gigs, models and other resources involving me, a camera, and some one/thing in front of that camera.

Some photos from this weekend:

Got more work done on my tattoo
Chanology protest in San Diego
Broke in new professional photography strobe lighting

Rest are on flickr!

enjoy your mondays.

I had an epiphany today, so I thought I would share. I normally dont try to dish out ‘life advice’ type stuff, but I’ll give it a shot :)

Sometimes the right song can literally work magic.

I cant speak for everyone, but I tend to associate certain songs and music with sort of time-date stamps. When I hear old Alice in Chains, it reminds me of rainy Saturday mornings in Rancho Bernardo, when I’d hop on my first BMX and go puttering around the neighborhood jumping off curbs.

This relates to something I learned about at Defcon 15 - the concept that you can ‘control peoples minds’ by choosing your words carefully. For example if I were to say:
whatever you do, do NOT think of a giant pink elephant wearing a fez, riding a unicycle

Your mind would have to construct that scene, only to “not think about it”. Tecahnically I just controlled your mind, as simple as it was.

It works the same way for me with music. The minute I hear a song, stuff just blips into focus in my mind. When I hear blind by KoRN, I think of playing doom1 via my 19.2k modem on cold and crisp winter nights back in 9th grade, chatting with fellow tiny young people on Dream net (anybody remember the old San Diego bbs scene?)

The point that I’m laboriously trying to scrape towards is that under the assumption that some peoples minds function similarly to my own, the right song in the right place could make all the difference, and it happened to me this morning on the way into work - so I thought I would share.

If you know someone well enough, you can make them smile by putting on your sniper hat, and firing off one precisely placed song. Thats a good feeling

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•